The power of community

In rural Cambodia, Chhean Toeu's family is united after years divided by migrant work

How do the world’s poorest communities handle an economic crisis?

In rural Cambodia, poverty splits families across borders. PATH is bringing husbands and wives, fathers and children back together—through the power of community.

In two countries, without a home

For most of their 19-year marriage, Chhean Toeu and her husband led separate lives. He spent years working in a Thai fishing port. Toeu stayed in her mother’s home in Cambodia, raising their daughter.

The dangerous work in Thailand was their only hope for a house of their own, a stable life, money to keep their daughter in school. But like other families divided by migrant work, Toeu and her husband could not save enough to bring him home for good.

A community of hope

Then Toeu met a group of women from her village. Like her, they’d spent years alone while their husbands worked in Thailand, until we helped their families find ways to stay together. Now they reach out to their communities, showing others how to escape the cycle of poverty and separation.

We work with villages on both sides of the border between Thailand and Cambodia to improve working conditions and teach families how to set goals, plan, and save for the future. New ideas—and new hope—spread from family to family and village to village.

Today, Toeu and her husband are together again, under a roof of their own. Their house is not only shelter, but a place where the family can work together. It represents a better life—and a stronger community.